Rail Gallery Rokko

[mags_minibuilds]

I was comparing availability on RGR's Japanese site (https://www.railgallery-r.com) vs. the English one (https://rg-rokko.com). There's some Kato freight cars/containers on the English site that says it's in stock but on the Japanese site it's out of stock or it's not even listed. What is your experience with this? In the past, I've ordered World Kougei items by email so this is my first time trying to order Kato N tracks and cars. Thanks!

[SwallowAngel]

Afaik Tokonami-san has seperate stock for his international clients, that's the reason the sites may not match up 100%.

Shooting him an E-Mail with your desired items should quickly clear up any uncertainties, he'll tell you when something is not available 🙂

[mags_minibuilds]

@SwallowAngel Ahh, ok that makes sense. Thanks!

[chadbag]

yes just always email what you want etc.  That's the easiest.    Great people to work with.

 

[Lessigen]

Been in regular contact with Masaharu-san juggling a few orders and pre-orders for 2025. Like what most people have been saying he's easily one of the most nicest people for an online store I've talked with and it's always a pleasure to chat with him. Very accommodating and will explain any questions, concerns or issues you may have. He's my number one go-to guy for JP trains and definitely won my loyalty as a return customer.

 

A couple tips I have for any prospective buyers or otherwise when buying from Masaharu-san:

• The best way to contact him is through Instagram (@railgalleryrokko), Email (rg-rokko-b-180701@rg-rokko.com) or his contact form (https://rg-rokko.com/contact). I don't use Instagram much (just in general) but it's a very good contact method. I prefer email in my opinion given it's better for me to parse nitty-gritty details.
• If you're looking at a train to purchase or pre-order, he knocks off a certain percentage, but I'm not sure of the exact formula he uses. By my calculations, you can use the following formulas to usually get the right amount, sans rounding errors. I find it useful for order and budget planning so I can set aside the necessary funds:
  • For pre-orders (he lists these as 25% OFF): 
    • MSRP with Sales tax/VAT included: MSRP * 0.68181818181
    • MSRP with Sales tax/VAT not included: MSRP * 0.74324324324
  • For items already released (he lists these as 20% OFF, I believe): 
    • MSRP with Sales tax/VAT included: MSRP * 0.72727272727
    • MSRP with Sales tax/VAT not included: MSRP * 0.85
• He ships with signature required (fairly apparent given the cost of the items), prepare accordingly if you or someone else is not able to be there to receive it.
• There are certain items that are export-restricted usually due to copyright (such as the TOMIX Hello Kitty Shinkansen or KATO Osaka 323 with Expo 2025 wrapping). You can still order it if you pick it up at his store, though it's not duty-free so you will have to pay sales tax/VAT for it if I recall correctly.
• Maybe not too useful, but the Japanese version of the website has a nice catalogue of all the items he stocked. Most have pictures. I find it especially useful to find TOMIX item numbers because TOMIX has the annoying habit of seemingly yoinking down the whole webpage when an item is discontinued, and you can use archive.org to find snapshots of those with the corresponding item number once you find what you're looking for.
• He can do pre-orders, just let him know of the item number you're looking at getting. He can also do KATO Hobby Center and KATO Kyoto orders on a case-by-case basis. I'm not sure of the sales tax implications (if any), or about Tec-station (as I didn't know it existed before I asked him about the others).
• Great tip: If an item is out of stock or not listed on his website, ask him if he has it! I scored a couple discontinued items that I thought I couldn't find new, and were either out of stock or not listed on his site by asking him if he had it available. Just don't expect to find a 500 EVA Shinkansen. 😉

Edited February 14 by Lessigen

[disturbman]

1 hour ago, Lessigen said:

If you're looking at a train to purchase or pre-order, he knocks off a certain percentage, but I'm not sure of the exact formula he uses. By my calculations, you can use the following formulas to usually get the right amount, sans rounding errors. I find it useful for order and budget planning so I can set aside the necessary funds:

• For pre-orders (he lists these as 25% OFF): 
  • MSRP with Sales tax/VAT included: MSRP * 0.68181818181
  • MSRP with Sales tax/VAT not included: MSRP * 0.74324324324
• For items already released (he lists these as 20% OFF, I believe): 
  • MSRP with Sales tax/VAT included: MSRP * 0.72727272727
  • MSRP with Sales tax/VAT not included: MSRP * 0.85

It depends on the manufacturer and your method of payment. Discount is higher for pre-orders if you pay with Wise. @Yavianice had a post much earlier about it.

[Lessigen]

4 minutes ago, disturbman said:

It depends on the manufacturer and your method of payment. Discount is higher for pre-orders if you pay with Wise. @Yavianice had a post much earlier about it.

Oh interesting, serves me right for skimming some of the posts. I will definitely reach out to him about it since I have Wise set up already. Thanks to the both of you!

[Tom]

SInce begin of January I am trying to get in contact with the shop again. Five emails, and I think four message via their contact page. I NEVER got any reply in 2025 from them. For me: it looks like the shop is closed. EVen their shopsystem acts a kind of strange. I already moved items in the basket and a while later: all items have been gone. THe basket is empty. One year ago: the shop replied very fast and the basket shop system worked. For me: it looks like the shop is not existing - or is it the common way to get no reply after weeks???

[disturbman]

I talked to him this week and last week. Not sure what is going on for you. Try Instagram if you can.

[bc6]

@Tom Japan has lots of holidays plus the shop is not open every day so I'd keep that in mind. He is notT a high-volume shop I know of at least 4 people here and myself and others that purchase from him not to mention he ships worldwide to boot. RG-ROKKO is not a Hobby Search or Joshin Kids that has a bunch of people working there I think it's a 2 man shop. With all the things I mentioned he may be slow to reply to you, Unfortunately if you're in a rush you may need to go elsewhere. i would wait for a reply, I just got yesterday from the owner so be patient. As a long time client of RG-ROKKO I wouldnt shop anywhere else for my Japanese N scale trains and accessories.

Edited February 15 by bc6

[cteno4]

While ive not contacted them this year yet, in the past they have always responded fairly quickly and been very helpful.

 

Do you have a second email address with a different provider you can try and use? Perhaps their emails are getting caught in a spam filter you dont have access to in your email chain. With ai stepping in more in filters like this you get odd selections at times what is spam. I had to turn off one early spam filter on my mail server as after they went to ai a number of regular things went poof. Unfortunately it was an ai system and flagged spams went down a black hole and no whitelisting, so i had to turn it off. On the basket do you have any blocking systems running for privacy? A few of those can screw up some more inexpensive cart systems [i expect they dont have an expensive retail web system].

 

Sorry you are having this exerience it’s 180 to what i have gotten from them over the years. Something really odd is going on hee as this is not their norm at all.

 

Cheers

 

jeff

 

[bill937ca]

I've never ordered with a shopping basket. It might reject a non-Japanese web address. 

 

I use the inquire form.  I typically specify the items I want, the shipping I want (EMS) and my payment method (Paypal invoice).  When I send this in the evening here I almost always have a Paypal invoice the next morning a few hours later and confirmation the items are available.

 

Also consider the time difference. Early evening eastern North America is morning in Japan.  Emailing early morning here arrives in Japan at evening when everyone has gone elsewhere than work and won't be read until later.

 

As much as possible when specifying the items I copy and paste the English description on RG Rokko's web site.

Edited February 16 by bill937ca

[Ekiben]

Sorry to hear you've been having trouble @Tom. I just emailed Masaharu a couple of days ago because I was having trouble using PayPal for an online order. He got back to me in a few hours, we solved the problem and he soon had my order packed up and shipped. This was only my second time ordering from RG Rokko, but I've had amazing service both times. I suspect RG Rokko's English website doesn't like some versions of some browsers when checking out, so best to email directly for orders and communication.

[Tom]

looks like that there is a problem. And I think it has to do with my email. I am using gmail.com. Who else is using gmail.com? Especially to the people who got responses this year from the shop. Please reply which email provider do you use. Last year (January 2024): totally no problem - same email. fast responses. This year: no response at all. 😞 

 

[bill937ca]

I use yahoo.ca

[Lessigen]

54 minutes ago, Tom said:

looks like that there is a problem. And I think it has to do with my email. I am using gmail.com. Who else is using gmail.com? Especially to the people who got responses this year from the shop. Please reply which email provider do you use. Last year (January 2024): totally no problem - same email. fast responses. This year: no response at all. 😞 

 

 I've been using gmail since after initial contact, spoke with him just last night. What email address are you using when sending an email? Should be rg-rokko-b-180701@rg-rokko.com

[cteno4]

Im sure gmail is using ai for spam. I would suspect it might be there and usually it’s from your whole mix of mail they try to pattern spam, so it will differ person to person. I dont use gmail as a primary but the uses i do do it with i find odd things get thru and a few false positives, so its not fool proof.

 

maybe whitelist rgrokko in gmail to try and get it around spam filters.

 

jeff

[Ekiben]

3 hours ago, Tom said:

Please reply which email provider do you use.

For the record, I'm still using a hotmail.com address, and it's been totally fine with RG Rokko.

[Yavianice]

been having regular contact with RG-R through Insta and Outlook.com. No problems to report.

Please also check your junk mail just in case.

[bc6]

FYI RG-ROKKO is closed until Wednesday.

[bill937ca]

Just placed an order tonight with the inquiry form.   Placed the order at 8.00pm specifying payment method and EMS shipping.

 

By 1am I have the paid the invoice and confirmed the order.

 

EDIT: My order shipped within an hour of payment.

Edited Wednesday at 07:08 AM by bill937ca

[Yavianice]

@Tom RG-R tells me they sent a reply now that his holiday has ended. Is everything OK now? If not then you can let us know.

[mgar2112]

I just emailed Mr. Tokonami yesterday and found his response in my inbox this morning. 

All the items I want are in stock and I plan on visiting his store in person during my first visit to Japan in April. 

Does anyone happen to know how his prices compare to the big retail stores in Tokyo? They are already better than another well-known on-line only retailer. 

Edited Thursday at 03:25 PM by mgar2112

[Lessigen]

3 hours ago, mgar2112 said:

I just emailed Mr. Tokonami yesterday and found his response in my inbox this morning. 

All the items I want are in stock and I plan on visiting his store in person during my first visit to Japan in April. 

Does anyone happen to know how his prices compare to the big retail stores in Tokyo? They are already better than another well-known on-line only retailer. 

 

Just an FYI if you aren't aware, if you visit him in store, you will have to pay sales tax (10%) on your order as his physical store isn't set up for duty-free. Otherwise, they are fairly competitively priced from what I last checked for domestic pricing online anyways; not sure how it is like with physical retail stores like IMON, Yodobashi or Joshin, sorry.

[mgar2112]

18 minutes ago, Lessigen said:

 

Just an FYI if you aren't aware, if you visit him in store, you will have to pay sales tax (10%) on your order as his physical store isn't set up for duty-free. Otherwise, they are fairly competitively priced from what I last checked for domestic pricing online anyways; not sure how it is like with physical retail stores like IMON, Yodobashi or Joshin, sorry.

Thanks Lessigen. He was totally transparent about the sales tax and not being duty-free. He broke down his pricing for me and it's better than I can find on-line with shipping to the US. Unfortunately, I won't be able to do any train shopping in Tokyo before I visit his shop so I won't be able to compare.

Edited Thursday at 07:28 PM by mgar2112